After a brief visit with the Kidz over Lunch at the Club, I stayed for Monday Night Football - well, the first half anyway. Then it was off to deliver a new Laptop I'd set-up for Friends Steve and Kathy Taylor, well, Kathy's actually. Tuesday was chores, bill paying and job hunting, all in all pretty boring, or so I thought, until I received an e-mail from Steve, alerting me to the fact that Kathy (who works for Paradise Television) had arranged for the filming of a TV commercial for TERALANI SAILING CHARTERS, and that they'd be going out on Tuesday and would I like to go along? Well, needless to say, I did, and it was a great time to say the least.
Wednesday evening we had some Kona weather moving into the Islands, which means wind, rain and high surf. Fortunately I decided to head over to Amanda's early Wednesday afternoon, knowing that I had to show up at Kaiser for a Stress Test at 8:00am, prior to the start of my Chemo and the Erbitux transfusion. Well, it was darned good that I did, as it was POURING all day Thursday.
OK, so the stress test wound up being pretty much that. Driving in the rain, in Pearl is stressful enough, I'd of never made it if I'd of had to drive from Lahaina. After meeting Steve the Tech, and Kathy the Nurse, they hooked me up to the 10 lead EKG machine, strapped on the BP cuff and explained that they'd do some ultrasound imaging of my heart before and again after my stint on the treadmill. The objective was to have me reach 60% of max heart rate. The tread mill starts out slowly, then every three minutes increases. While I can't recall the exact numbers right now, I'm quite pleased to report that not only did I reach the 60%, I actually got all the way up to 101% and survived. Following all that, they called in the Cardiologist, Dr. Gerry, who reviewed the results and said, "Well, you've got a pretty full plate here, but one thing you don't have to worry about, is your Heart!" Well that was good news.
After a brief trip back to Amanda's, Kyle returned from bidding a job, to watch Hailey, so Amanda could accompany me on the Chemo visit, which was a good thing. Before they started the IV I had a visit from Joni, the Pharmacist, who explained what all I might expect from the treatment. They do a very good job of making sure you are aware of everything, and know what to expect, no matter how much you may not want to hear it... And, I guess because of my size, they'd decided to give me an undiluted dose, 800 ml of the Erbitux, along with a hefty dose of Benedryl. Now, here's the shocker - the Erbitux cost is $8,000.00!!! OMG. I will not complain any more about my $15.00 co-pays for every single visit. Annette was the RN who hooked me up with the IV, and she did such a good job, I hardly even knew it was happening. And then, the high point of the day, the other Nurse there, Cheryl, came over with a huge can of Almond Rocca, and said, "Help yourself!" Be still my heart, I was in heaven. Or so I thought. Little did I know, that I'd be "paying" for it later...
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck
Wednesday evening we had some Kona weather moving into the Islands, which means wind, rain and high surf. Fortunately I decided to head over to Amanda's early Wednesday afternoon, knowing that I had to show up at Kaiser for a Stress Test at 8:00am, prior to the start of my Chemo and the Erbitux transfusion. Well, it was darned good that I did, as it was POURING all day Thursday.
OK, so the stress test wound up being pretty much that. Driving in the rain, in Pearl is stressful enough, I'd of never made it if I'd of had to drive from Lahaina. After meeting Steve the Tech, and Kathy the Nurse, they hooked me up to the 10 lead EKG machine, strapped on the BP cuff and explained that they'd do some ultrasound imaging of my heart before and again after my stint on the treadmill. The objective was to have me reach 60% of max heart rate. The tread mill starts out slowly, then every three minutes increases. While I can't recall the exact numbers right now, I'm quite pleased to report that not only did I reach the 60%, I actually got all the way up to 101% and survived. Following all that, they called in the Cardiologist, Dr. Gerry, who reviewed the results and said, "Well, you've got a pretty full plate here, but one thing you don't have to worry about, is your Heart!" Well that was good news.
After a brief trip back to Amanda's, Kyle returned from bidding a job, to watch Hailey, so Amanda could accompany me on the Chemo visit, which was a good thing. Before they started the IV I had a visit from Joni, the Pharmacist, who explained what all I might expect from the treatment. They do a very good job of making sure you are aware of everything, and know what to expect, no matter how much you may not want to hear it... And, I guess because of my size, they'd decided to give me an undiluted dose, 800 ml of the Erbitux, along with a hefty dose of Benedryl. Now, here's the shocker - the Erbitux cost is $8,000.00!!! OMG. I will not complain any more about my $15.00 co-pays for every single visit. Annette was the RN who hooked me up with the IV, and she did such a good job, I hardly even knew it was happening. And then, the high point of the day, the other Nurse there, Cheryl, came over with a huge can of Almond Rocca, and said, "Help yourself!" Be still my heart, I was in heaven. Or so I thought. Little did I know, that I'd be "paying" for it later...
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck
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